Today we're going to take our version of live political coverage to the next level by beginning to connect government data such as campaign contributions or lobbyist meetings to a political event in real-time.
Continue readingGSA Tracks Contractors Work in Database Off-Limits to Public
Given the half-trillion dollars spent on federal contracting every year, its comforting to know that the U.S. government has a massive database that tracks contractors past performance.
Too bad it cant be tapped by the public. Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight (POGO), says this is like not allowing a parent to see their childs report card.
The Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) is managed by the General Services Administration.
According to the GSA, the database aggregates a vast amount of information from disparate sources into ratings that can be used to quickly distinguish ...
FCC Endorsing Open Government
The Federal Communications Commission, in fulfilling their obligation to create broadband plan, is required (pdf) to lay out “a plan... View Article
Continue readingAnother Court, Another Blow to Campaign Finance Limits (and Disclosure?)
The Colorado Supreme Court rejected a referendum to stem the flow of money in politics by banning holders of large,... View Article
Continue readingTransparency in New Mexico: The 2010 Legislature
This year brings a landmark for the Sunlight Foundation. We’ve been hinting for some time that we’re going to make... View Article
Continue readingJust some links
1) The White House invites tea partiers to challenge them on transparency. 2) Matt Yglesias: Transparency: The Good and The... View Article
Continue readingWhite House Health Proposal May Blow Up PhRMA Deal
This morning the White House released a new health care proposal that may be used as a blueprint for a... View Article
Continue readingServices, Resources and Tools for Mapping Data
Long ago, putting together a map of data points would be the sole domain of a skilled GIS practitioner employing... View Article
Continue readingTen Million CIA Documents Require In-Person Visit
The Central Intelligence Agency maintains more than 10 million pages of declassified, post-World War II documents, covering everything from the birth of the CIA to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The documents are publicly available - assuming one is willing to drive to the National Archives complex in College Park, Maryland, sit at one of four computer terminals in the library, and print dozens, hundreds, or thousands of pages.
Steven Aftergood, who runs the Project on Government Secrecy for the Federation of American Scientists, argues that the documents, accessible through the CIA Records Search Tool (CREST), should simply be put ...
Every Non-Profit is an Open Government Non-Profit
Why your non-profit stands to benefit from Open Data
Often times at Sunlight the non-profit community looks at us strangely. Here in Washington, DC we've probably made more investments in technology than any other non-profit or advocacy organization I've run across. Certainly our mission is focused around the use of technology, so that makes a lot of sense-- we're focused on getting data out of government, doing interesting things with it, and letting you see what happens in Washington better. That means technology investment.
But one question I struggle with is: why doesn't every non-profit advocate for open data from the Government? Don't ALL of them stand to benefit?
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